I own a small deli inside a commercial building park and bought this to replace a same sized ceramic griddle that I purchased at Target. Why did I buy another griddle? 1. ceramic becomes very difficult to clean if you use any sugared ingredients such as BARBEQUE sauce! I even tried professional griddle cleaner solutions and I still had a horrific brown ring (which was around the shape of the heating element underneath) 2. Cleaning ceramic was a youknowhwat! 3. Grease trap was too small and difficult to drain incurring cost of hot oil gloves which are professionally sized for The Hulk My "heavy duty" use: -I use this griddle at least 3 times a week. -I cook all my chicken breasts, bacon, seared meats, eggs, patty melts, etc with great success. What I love about this unit (after 15 uses): 1. The legs are easily removable! This means that I can detach the power supply, detach the legs on each side and run the whole unit (even coated in bacon fat) under our hot water tap for a few minutes and it's all clean. I have NOT HAD TO SCRUB this unit, yet!!!! While running my super hot tap water over the griddle unit, I clean both "legs" in our hot soap water bath. For someone who has to clean so much everyday in the deli, this minimal cleanup is a HUGE bonus! 2. Grease trap: While this grease/oil trap doesn't necessarily hold any more than any other brand, the front lip on it allows it to be safely removed without having to wear heat proof gloves to drain. THIS IS A HUGE THING! especially when cooking up to 40 pieces of bacon a day! With my previous $60 ceramic unit, I had to put on the safety gloves and couldn't move more than 8" or so when trying to dump the super hot grease (mostly because the other grease trap/tray was more wide and shallow than this one and had a very small hand grip on the front. 3. Crosshatch ridges on surface are weird at first but I've not had any problems. The texture of the griddle plate is odd but I've not had issue. I've used it many times to cook chicken breasts, bacon and have even been able to "cook" breaded goat cheese slices with NO PROBLEMS!!!! I've had no problem using my plastic spatula across this slightly gridded surface to scoop off excess oil or food bits into the grease tray. do note that my cooking utensils are heavy duty, restaurant supply grade so I can't speak for plain jane spatulas or such. 4. holy crap, are the removable legs such a bonus and a must for me! Once the unit has cooled down, I just detach the legs, put the legs in our hot soapy water bath and run off the excess grease on the grill pan from our hot water spout. I make sure to dry the legs after washing to make sure no rust occurs though I don't think they would. That's just how we do things in a restaurant business. What's Missing: I honestly have no complaints but if I was the engineer on this project, I would include the ability to adjust the height of any of the four "legs". This is my issue because the stainless steel surfaces in our deli are very old so when I use it in it's regular spot in my deli, the oil runs towards the back and not toward the grease drain in the front. Again, this is my issue and not the product. Yes, I could add risers to both the bottom feet but to be honest, it's best I don't as it keeps me cognizant of how much grease is being produced and how often I need to empty the grease tray. Again, this may sound like a negative but with using the other ceramic unit for several units, it became "out of sight, out of mind" so this is actually a plus for me. With my old unit, I can't tell you how many times the grease tray overfilled and I wasn't aware of it until I saw or heard the dripping and that was such a MESS!!!! CLEANING: Remove the bits and just run the full plate under hot water for a bit, then use your scrub brush (non-stick approved) and your done! Give the legs a decent wash with soapy hot water. let dry. So easy and I can't make you understand how much the ease of clean with this unit is so important. It makes all the difference! HEATING RANGE: 1.OKAY,so the heating is more intense from the direction of the heating attachment than towards the end of the heating coil underneath. However, it does not detract more than any other unit I have used, even the $20 more ceramic unit I had purchased. With bacon, it's a non issue as once you flip, the less heated side gets the more heated side. When it comes to chicken breasts, you learn to place the thicker portion of meat on top of the coil underneath with the thinner end of the breast towards the middle where there is no heat coil. With this unit, I haven't had to adjust my cooking style at all compared to the more expensive ceramic version. OVERALL: I just couldn't imagine how you would be disappointed in this unit. Again, I'm using it in a professional kitchen and it very much exceeded expectations. I don't expect to have to replace it for years!
